Story County Radio Amateur Club
Regular meeting minutes
4January 2018
Mary Greeley Medical Center
President Paul, W0YR, opened the meeting at 19:34. Introductions were made around the room, with 18 members and guests in attendance.
At 19:36, Jason, KC0EDE, provided a presentation on Automatic Link Establishment (ALE). Jason’s notes are available at or see the main W0YL.com page and look under the March 2018 announcement for a link to the presentation.
Paul opened the business meeting at 20:32.
Vice President Jason, KC0EDE, discussed several topics for upcoming meetings, such as FT8. Some other suggested topics included cross-band repeaters, electromagnetic pulse protection, and the Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network (AREDN). Gerry, K0CQ also identified several potential speakers. It was also noted that DX Engineering has offered to provide a presentation, although some concerns were expressed about assuringpotential advertising or sales efforts would not be associated a presentation.
Jason also noted that officer elections will be held at the regular May 3 meeting. Positions include: president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, communications manager, and repeater manager.
Secretary’s report: One correction to the February meeting was received. Otherwise, the minutes were accepted for the record.
Treasurer’s report: No report was offered. It was noted that a $10 fee for a table at the Perry hamfest had been issued, but there was a $3 refund due to limited participation. Clint, KC0JUO, suggested that we may want to consider a table at the DMRAA hamfest.
Communications manager: Clint, KC0JUO, commented on the recent I-35 closures and that we need an accessible location with a permanent CB antenna to effectively communicate with truckers. We currently only have a portable antenna and no good working location. Clint will continue to investigate options.
The state ARES meeting will be held on Saturday, May 10, in Waterloo.
The Stable Mercury exercise will be held on April 23 and 24, and is expected to be a more extensive exercise than in the past.
RAGBRAI will include a stop in Ames on Tuesday, July 24. We were not involved the last time RAGBRAI had a stop in Ames, but Clint suggested we reach out to see how we might help.
The Fight For Air event will be held in Des Moines on Sunday, April 8. Other Polk County ARES events were reviewed and members were encouraged to review those events on
The Flying Cyclones Annual Fly-In will be held on Saturday, April 21 from 07:00 to 11:00 at the Ames airport. Story County ARES will be providing car parking support as a means of testing equipment.
Repeater Manager: No report
CRAC liaison: Jason, KC0EDE, reported that he missed the February 26 meeting but will attend the next meeting. He will invite CARC members to participate in the SCARC Field Day activities on June 27 and 28, recognizing that many students will not be in the area.
Old business: The possibility of installing the DMR repeater built by Paul, W0YR, in Zaffarano Hall was still under consideration. There are several issues regarding ownership, access, and operations that still need to be resolved.
The club will be moving to Groups.IO for email support in the new future. While we have used Iowa State University resources for a long time, the club officers felt that we should have better control of our web, mail, and social media resources. Additionally, the club could enhance the functionality of those resources.
New business: None.
At 21:24, Skip, AD0H moved that we adjourn. Claus, K0TET, seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
Respectfully submitted,
Ted, KC0URT
Club secretary